Prosecuting, Hannah Strawson said it was 8pm when two witnesses saw James make her way to her car in the Angel and Royal car park. She opened the driver’s door hitting an adjacent car. She got in and drove the Ford Ka forwards several times before successfully reversing the vehicle.

Miss Strawson said James drove up to the barrier, almost hitting it, and had to make several attempts on the key pad to raise the barrier.

One witness went up to her and aksed her if she should be driving. James asked the witness to go away and drove away into the High Street. A witness called the police.

Officers went to the car owner’s address where they found James who admitted to being the driver. They found the car parked half way on the verge outside the house.

A breath test showed James to have 103 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

James told police that normally she would have had one glass of wine before getting a lift home, but on this occasion she had drunk two more glasses of wine before driving herself.

Chris Pye-Smith, defending, said medical issues were at the root of the incident. He said James had suffered from depression since she was a teenager but ony in recent years had she got help for it.

Mr Pye-Smith said on May 13 that James had had a stressful time at work. She had cooperated fully with the police. He said: “She is very frightened about appearing in court. She has not been in trouble before.”

Magistrates disqualified James from driving for 26 months. She was fined £942 and ordered to pay costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £94.